What a Day!

What a day! Just last night we had an intense discussion about tardiness, and I have never been late…until today. I blame those blisters under foot caused by the nine kilometer hike up the mountain. The blisters forced me to quickly LIMP across campus! We began with a very exciting and interesting marketing lecture from one of our amazing program directors, Nicholas Clermont. It was interesting to learn about the manipulative techniques used by some of my favorite companies, such as Starbucks and Apple - so shocking! However, I always find that Nicholas’ lectures would tire out my brain as he would answer a question with another question, which makes us think even more! And with no breakfast in your system, it is quite hard to keep up with the pace.

We then had the president of the whole Shad Valley Program, Barry Bisson talk to us. He began with a friendly introduction of explaining why he became the president of the program and the admittance process. It was quite inspirational and very touching to hear about his reason in becoming the president because one of his reasons was to ultimately embark on a new adventure in helping people.

After having a quick lunch, I quickly went back to residence to freshen up and was ready to listen to our next presenter, a Shad Alumnus, André Bellefleur. He talked about the progression of Shad Valley and how it evolved over time. Hearing him speak, one can easily see how amazing the Shad Valley experience was to him even though he completed the program many years ago. He was able to recall events that occurred in the program like it was yesterday.

After his presentation, we had some committee time; all the “Shads” are now busy planning and organizing things to accomplish which would lead to the end of our Shad Valley experience. We then had another opportunity to hear the president speak more after dinner as he gave a workshop on finance. It was extremely informative and really helped us in preparing our business proposals for our huge projects. This pretty much summed up Shad Valley, July 7.

I have been honestly having the most amazing summer; time is flying way too fast. The friends that I have made here are honestly nothing less than exquisite! Though I have only known these people for 11 days, I already know that these friendships will be everlasting, and I am NOT exaggerating. The things we have gone through! I am so excited to see what other surprises Shad Valley will be bringing us in the next few weeks, but one thing that I hope won’t be a surprise are my blisters disappearing from my foot!

: - )

Keith Choy, Shad Valley Université Laval 2010
Hometown: Mississauga, Ontario